Posted by Carol
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Feb 27, 2007 at 3:17 pm

To Euro parent & Legal Alien: of course you're part of our community. I guess my brain also went to sleep while my computer typed on. I objected to PAGE's approach to creating community by dividing us all into sheep and goats.

As legal aliens, unfortunately, you can't vote for or against bond issues. PAGE probably wouldn't be interested in your thoughts or your needs. They organized to promote increased construction in Palo Alto.

Euro Parent, Legal Alien: of course you're already part of the community.

PAGE is an organization founded to support increased density and new construction in Palo Alto. You're not on their screen, because you can't vote. When I objected to the criticism of residents who aren't "citizens", I should have thought of you, but I didn't. My apologies.

Palo Alto's big political issue is that no one wants to pay the costs of growth. Those who like growth think it pays for itself, and those who don't, won't pay for the costs of the growth we already have because our political setup is such that it would only encourage more growth and a bigger deficit in the infrastructures. Also, in recent years, bond projects tend to be over-scale, not addressed to solving problems already in existence, so the bond issues usually fail. There has been a loss of trust and confidence in the City Manager and consequently in the City Council, so that's not likely to change any time soon.

Posted by Howard
a resident of Crescent Park
on Feb 27, 2007 at 9:46 pm

Carol -- I think you are being deliberately obtuse. Obviously the point of the title is that many residents are not actively engaged in the community -- they are apathetic. To become "real" citizens, they need to get involved and informed. Will this event help accomplish that? I doubt it, because those that attend are two standard deviations above the mean in terms of involvement already.

Posted by Not Going
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 28, 2007 at 12:14 am

And also way above the mean in income. They are asking for $10 at the door. Strange "community" they are trying to create.
Maybe only people on tax deductible expense accounts should attend, so the government pays half the tab.

Posted by Carol
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Feb 28, 2007 at 9:21 am

Howard, you think it's obtuse to believe that insulting people is a good way to get them to do what you want? BTW, PAGE has been doing this for several years. They are very well funded, PR retired Stanford, Publisher of The Weekly, etc.

People in Palo Alto are not generally apathetic. They are cynical, even angry, but do not see themselves or people who represent them seizing the reins of city government. Several over-designed, over-scaled projects have convinced nearly everyone that the City Manager is disengaged, probably incompetent, and should not be entrusted with spending city money. Council tells City Manager, publicly, that he's doing badly and gives him a raise. Stalement. City can proceed on anything the Council can pay for without getting the voters to vote for a bond. PAGE dreams of $50,000,00 bond projects to make the city more attractive to development. Unlikely to happen. No need to be insulting about it. Basically, PAGE is frustrated because people want to pay for what they need, not what PAGE needs.

Posted by Not Going Either
a resident of Southgate
on Mar 5, 2007 at 4:45 pm

I think well intentioned people come to their meetings, thinking there is a problem to be solved and they want to do the right thing. But since developers and real estate people run the organization, it helps to know where they are coming from. $10?

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